Far water does not quench the thirst of the near, and distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors.

- Han proverb

The 1st Platoon 2nd Class is a women's class. After the "old woman" committed suicide, the squad leader was replaced by Meng Dacui, who had a pungent personality.

Meng Dacui and her husband Yan Ziling are descendants of the ancient sages Mencius and Yan Hui in Shandong.

Not to be outdone, Liu Yue'e dropped the hoe in her hand, rushed up and grabbed Meng Dacui's hair, and fought with her.

The two women rolled on the ground, tossing and turning, rolling around, covered in dust.

Gong Lamei was in a hurry when she saw this posture, how could this good revolutionary sister say that she would fight? She hurried forward to pull the rack. Unexpectedly, she was kicked on the stomach by Liu Yue'e in the fighting, staggered to her feet, and fell to the ground.

Other employees saw that Gong Lamei, who was 9 months pregnant, had fallen, and were so frightened that they quickly helped her up.

Gong Lamei's face was pale and her abdominal pain did not stop, and she was urgently sent to the company's infirmary by the employees.

That night, Gong Lamei gave birth to a big-headed son. Niu Wanshan named the child Niu Jianjiang, which means to build the frontier. A week later, he invited Ma Yumin again, and named the child Yagubai.

Since then, Gong Lamei has concentrated on taking care of her three children.

Niu Mulan has become a student in the first grade of junior high school in Camp 3 Middle School, and is also the class president, organizing students to study the "Anthology" carefully and write their learning experiences.

For a time, Niu Mulan's reputation in the 181st Regiment was shocked, and she became a well-known learning model for men, women, and children. Niu Mulan's heart has always been high, and her self-esteem is also very strong. Ordinary people can't get into her eyes at all. She felt that the intellectual youth of Shanghai and Tianjin were young and lively, cultured and temperamental, and represented a high level and advanced nature, so she only had some contacts with them.

When these educated youths return to Shanghai and Tianjin to visit relatives, they always bring back some beautiful clothes and White Rabbit milk candy, chocolates and canned biscuits. They will also send some to Niu Mulan.

These educated youths sometimes come to Niu Mulan's home to knit sweaters and talk about learning with her. They found that her younger brother Xiao Jianxin was fair-skinned, with dark hair, thick eyebrows and big eyes, which was particularly cute.

Niu Wanshan and Gong Lamei stayed in the sugar factory for two years and were transferred to the 18th Company.

They were placed in the second house in the 1st row of the 18th Company's staff dormitory. As soon as you enter the house, the first thing you see is a wall of fire that divides the house into two parts. In front of the wall of fire was a pot made of adobe by itself. Next to the pot is a chopping board for chopping vegetables and noodles. The board was built on four wooden sticks embedded in the ground, and it looked very unreliable. Two halves of white flour and pea flour were placed at the bottom of the board, and several halves of bricks were used underneath to prevent the flour from getting wet.

Through the doorway formed by the wall of fire and the wall of the house, the half of the house inside is the bedroom. The beds he slept on were made of adobe. It was covered with reed mats made of dried reeds, and wool felt and cotton mattresses were laid on top of the reed mats. In the corner, four wooden sticks stuck in the soil were used to prop up a log box with goods. Inside the box were several half-used clothes and some letters.

On the wall is a bust of a party and state leader. The leader on the picture is dressed in a flat gray tunic, his face is radiant, and he looks at this poor and simple ordinary family with extremely kind eyes.

The first house of this row of dormitories lives the family of Du Runhua, a former soldier and battalion instructor from Shandong. Maybe it's because of the cadres, the people of the Du family seem to be very autistic, never like the workers who go to the neighbor's house to chat with each other, and never take the initiative to invite others to their home.

In people's eyes, the instructor's house is full of mystery.

Compared to ordinary people, the instructor's family is very wealthy. Every summer, when the sun was shining, the instructor's wife and daughter would take out the blankets and brocade quilts pressed in the boxes and spread them on the firewood pile in front of their house to dry, so as to prevent these items from getting damp and moldy.

At this time, it is also a time for Niu Wanshan's family to feast their eyes. They huddled in the doorway of their house, holding their breath, admiring the colorful textiles through the cracks in the bamboo curtains, and their hearts were really envious.

One day, the instructor's big lover suddenly stood at the door and shouted and cursed. It turned out that when she was recycling the blanket and quilt face at home, she found that a silk quilt embroidered with peony flowers and phoenix was missing.

However, no matter how vicious the language she used to curse, no one came out to admit that she had stolen their family's face. She scolded for an entire afternoon, until she was too tired to stand it.

From then on, as long as the instructor's house dried the things that were pressed at the bottom of the box, Dai Ailian would take out a mazazi and sit under the shade of the tree, guarding the precious family property, and did not dare to blink her eyes more.

There's another amazing goodie in the instructor's home. On the wall of the fire were several large glass jars soaked in something like mushrooms.

One hot noon, Dai Ailian made an exception and called Xiao Jianxin, who was playing at the door, to her house. She carefully took down the large glass jar, poured out half a cup of cool divine water, and handed it to him.

Xiao Jianxin has been yearning for this glass jar for a long time, and now he drank it in his hand immediately. He found that the divine water in his mouth was sweet and sour, with a hint of coldness, which was particularly thirst-quenching and very delicious.

He drank the divine water in the cup in a few gulps, and then handed the cup to Dai Ailian, looking forward to Aunt Dai pouring another cup for herself.

I saw Dai Ailian's glass jar carefully sealed with gauze, carefully raised it above her head, and gently placed it on top of the fire wall.

Xiao Jianxin had no choice but to reluctantly leave the instructor's home. Later, he learned that it was the popular kombucha.

The third dormitory is occupied by a family surnamed Li originally from Hunan. The male owner of the Li family was exiled from Hunan to Xinjiang, and he has been closed to a labor camp and has never appeared in the sight of his neighbors. He had a small, fair-skinned wife and a son and a daughter. The son's name is Li Heping. The daughter's name is Li Xiaofang.

Due to the small number of ethnic minorities in the 18th Company, the canteen and nursery school of the unit are all Han food. Niu Wanshan had no way to send Xiao Jianxin to the nursery, so he had to entrust Xiaofang's mother to ask her to take care of the child, and help warm a bowl of milk and steamed buns at noon.

The situation of Xiaofang's family is not very good. Although there was a slender hole in the iron pot used for cooking, it was still in use. Before each cooking, Xiaofang's mother had to put a small ball of dough on the cracks of the iron pot as a binder, and then start pouring oil and water into the pot.

The employees all said that Xiaofang's mother was mentally ill and a crazy woman. Because every once in a while, whether it was sunny or rainy or snowy, she would run to the door of the battalion headquarters office and abuse the leader in a strong Hunan dialect that ordinary people could not understand. The content of the abuse was mainly that they had taken their husbands away.

Whenever this time, Li Heping and Li Xiaofang cried and pulled their mother home, but they just couldn't pull it back.

Instructor Du, who has always been taciturn, said to Niu Wanshan: "Old Niu, you ask Xiao Jianxin to call Xiaofang's mother home." ”

So, under the attention of the employees of the whole company, Xiao Jianxin walked through the empty square alone, timidly walked to the side of Xiao Fang's mother, who was out of control, and gently tugged the corner of her clothes with her little hand.

Xiao Fang's mother turned around and saw Xiao Jianxin, immediately lowered her sharp voice, and continued to abuse the cadres while holding his little hand and walking slowly towards her home.

The 18th Company also has a unique family. They lived in the last row of dormitories of the company. The man's name is Wang Yupeng, originally from Henan, and his wife has passed away for many years, leaving behind a large number of daughters. The situation of their family was so bad that they did not even have the money to buy matches. They borrowed a little fire from someone else's house, lit the firewood in the stove, and kept burning the inexhaustible dry branches, and did not let it go out.

Therefore, people can always see Wang Yupeng's daughter collecting firewood in the woods.

Niu Mulan was very sympathetic to the Wang family's plight, and led the students in the class to help them clean and wash clothes in her spare time.

Later, someone mysteriously said to Niu Mulan: "You have to be careful! Wang Yupeng's history is not innocent. ”

Niu Mulan never dared to help them again. She was worried that she would never help back and forth, and in the end she helped a counter-revolutionary family.

The second row of dormitories of the 18th Company lived a family originally from Minqin County, Gansu. The man's name is Li Qifu, and there is only one wife who has no job and a 10-year-old son, Shewa.

Li Qifu and Niu Wanshan both work in the company's cart shift, and they have more contact with each other, and because they are fellow villagers in Gansu, the relationship between the two families is very good.

One day, Li Qifu saw that Niu Wanshan was distressed that there was no one to take care of his two sons, so he said to him: "My mother-in-law is idle at home and has nothing to do, why don't you hand over your family's Jianjiang to my mother-in-law to take care of?" ”

Niu Wanshan immediately shook his head and replied helplessly: "No." You are Hermes-Epitek. We are Muslims. It is inconvenient for the doll to eat. ”

Li Qifu patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, our family will never eat pork." ”

So, Niu Wanshan returned home and summed up with Gong Lamei, and handed over Jianjiang to Li Qifu's wife Wei Yuzhen to take care of.

Li Qifu and Wei Yuzhen are married for the second time. Shewa is a child born to Wei Yuzhen and her ex-husband. The two have never had children since they got married. They especially like the chubby Jianjiang, not only do they not charge Niu Wanshan for childcare, but also because Jianjiang is the second son of the Niu family, they gave him the milk name of a second fat man, and later even took the name of the Li family - Li Yuzhu.

Jianjiang traveled between the Niu and Li families, staying at Niu's house tonight and Li's house tomorrow night. Sometimes, when it was time for dinner in the evening, he would go to the two houses to see what they were cooking. Whoever eats deliciously, he stays at his house to eat.

After a long time, many employees thought that the second fat man was the biological child of the Li family.